IIT Guwahati leads India into top 100 global varsity rankings

London, Apr 30: The prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati has taken India into the world's top 100 university rankings for the first time with an entry at No. 87.

IIT Guwahati is the only Indian educational institute in the 2014 league table of '100 Under 50' institutions released by the 'Times Higher Education' (THE) magazine here today. The IIT shares the 87th rank on the list with Portugal's New University of Lisbon and Australia's University of Western Sydney.

The annual evaluation of the world's top 100 universities under 50 years of age had a distinct Eastern stance with South Korea's Pohang University of Science and Technology, topping the list for the third consecutive year.

"There has been a great deal of soul-searching in India over the fact that none of its universities make the World University Rankings' top 200  a serious concern given the country's great intellectual history and growing social and economic influence," said Phil Baty, rankings editor at THE magazine.

"But this new analysis, which examines the next generation of global university stars, should be encouraging. Of the 'BRICS' nations, Russia, mainland China and South Africa do not make the grade, so it is cause for optimism that the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati breaks into the top 100," he added.

The '100 Under 50 2014' uses the same comprehensive list of 13 performance indicators that underpin the prestigious THE World University Rankings, but employs an especially re-calibrated methodology to better capture the characteristics of young institutions.

"It looks to the future by examining a new breed of global universities  those that have managed to join the world elite in a matter of decades rather than centuries, and those with the potential to become the next generation's Harvard or Oxford," THE said in a statement.

Asia again makes an impressive showing in the rankings, bolstered by India's inclusion. The top Asian nation in terms of numbers is Taiwan, which has four representatives (down from five), led by the National Sun Yat-Sen University in 40th, the statement said.

Switzerland's Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne retains second position and at the third position is another South Korean institute - Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.